LETTER:Israel: torn apart by two forms of terrorism

Sir: Robert Fisk is quite right; there always has been a terrorist streak in Israeli society ("Arabs who want peace say Israel must face its own fundamentalists", 6 November). In 1944, while Britain was still engaged in a bloody war against Nazi Germany, a British minister of state was murdered by Jewish terrorists. Yet senior members of the terrorist organisation (Lehi) have risen to high positions in the Israeli government, the bodies of his murderers are now buried in a national shrine and a special issue of postage stamps was issued in their honour.

Until Israel and Western countries, particularly the United States, recognise this aspect of extreme Zionism, there is little hope of achieving a peace that will be acceptable to the majority of Jewish Israelis and Arab Palestinians.